Prof Suné Donoghue

B Home Econ, B Home Econ (Hons), M Home Econ, PhD Consumer Science

Position: Senior Lecturer

Fields of expertise: consumer decision-making, consumer behaviour, consumer complaint behaviour, consumer protection (consumerism)  

Tel no: + 27 (0)12 420-2488
E-mail:  [email protected]

Academic memberships:

  • Member of the Association for Consumer Research (ACR) and of the South African Association of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences (SAAFECS)

Orchid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3186-5202

NRF rating: C3

Prof Donoghue is an associate professor in the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria. She obtained her B Home Economics degree (cum laude), Honours in Home Economics (cum laude) and Master’s in Home Economics (cum laude) between 1995 and 1998, and a PhD in Consumer Science from UP in 2008. Prof Donoghue held a Y2 rating from the NRF from 2013 to 2018. Since 2019 she has held a C3 rating from the NRF.

Her research area is consumer behaviour and well-being. The main focus is on consumer cognitions, emotions and behaviour following product and service failures and the implications for retailers and service providers. She is interested in ethics and methodological issues in consumer research, customer satisfaction, service recovery, customer service, consumer psychology and consumer protection. Her research’s theoretical frameworks and methodologies provide the foundation for future studies in various specialisation areas within consumer behaviour and consumer science research, including consumer clothing behaviour, consumer food behaviour, interior merchandising, hospitality research, and food science research.

Prof Donoghue has several publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings and has presented various research papers at national and international conferences. She is the lead author of an article published in the Journal of Family Ecology and Consumer Studies - the best paper published in 2006/2007. Prof Donoghue co-authored a paper on consumer perceptions of the complexity of selected household purchase decisions which received the Elsevier Most Innovative Paper Award at the 2013 European Institute of Retailing and Service Studies (EIRASS) Conference in Philadelphia, USA.

Prof Donoghue acted as principal supervisor of five Master’s students, sole supervisor of four Master’s students, and co-supervisor of three Master’s students and a PhD student, who all graduated between 2010 and 2023. These studies pertained to consumer complaint behaviour or protection, forming an integral part of her research focus. She is currently the principal supervisor of one Master’s student and one PhD student, the sole supervisor of one Master’s student, and co-supervisor of one Master’s student and one PhD student.

Prof Donoghue lectures on research methodology and consumer behaviour.

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